ARC Review: American Royals by Katharine McGee

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Publication: September 3, 2019

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much to Random House Books for Young Readers and the entire Penguin Publishing Group for providing this copy!

Synopsis: Two princesses vying for the ultimate crown. 
Two girls vying for the prince’s heart. 
This is the story of the American royals.

When America won the Revolutionary War, its people offered General George Washington a crown. Two and a half centuries later, the House of Washington still sits on the throne. Like most royal families, the Washingtons have an heir and a spare. A future monarch and a backup battery. Each child knows exactly what is expected of them. But these aren’t just any royals. They’re American. And their country was born of rebellion.

As Princess Beatrice gets closer to becoming America’s first queen regnant, the duty she has embraced her entire life suddenly feels stifling. Nobody cares about the spare except when she’s breaking the rules, so Princess Samantha doesn’t care much about anything, either . . . except the one boy who is distinctly off-limits to her. And then there’s Samantha’s twin, Prince Jefferson. If he’d been born a generation earlier, he would have stood first in line for the throne, but the new laws of succession make him third. Most of America adores their devastatingly handsome prince . . . but two very different girls are vying to capture his heart.

The duty. The intrigue. The Crown. New York Times bestselling author Katharine McGee imagines an alternate version of the modern world, one where the glittering age of monarchies has not yet faded–and where love is still powerful enough to change the course of history.

Blog Tour: Bright Burning Stars by A.K. Small [Review]

Hello everyone! Happy Thursday! I’m elated to be a part of the blog tour for the incredible Bright Burning Stars, and I’m even more excited to share with all of you my thoughts on this complex, compelling, and conflicting read.

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★ 

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary

Publication Date: May 21, 2019

Thank you so much to Algonquin Young Readers for providing a copy of the book in advance and for inviting me to be a part of the blog tour!

Synopsis: Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School since childhood, where they’ve formed an inseparable bond forged by respective family tragedies and a fierce love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves what they would do to win the ultimate prize: to be the one girl selected to join the Opera’s prestigious corps de ballet. Would they die? Cheat? Seduce the most talented boy in the school, dubbed the Demigod, hoping his magic would make them shine, too? Neither girl is sure.

But then Kate gets closer to the Demigod, even as Marine has begun to capture his heart. And as selection day draws near, the competition—for the prize, for the Demigod—becomes fiercer, and Marine and Kate realize they have everything to lose, including each other.

Review: Her Royal Highness (Royals #2) by Rachel Hawkins

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis: Millie Quint is devastated when she discovers that her sort-of-best friend/sort-of-girlfriend has been kissing someone else. And because Millie cannot stand the thought of confronting her ex every day, she decides to apply for scholarships to boarding schools . . . the farther from Houston the better.

Millie can’t believe her luck when she’s accepted into one of the world’s most exclusive schools, located in the rolling highlands of Scotland. Everything about Scotland is different: the country is misty and green; the school is gorgeous, and the students think Americans are cute.

The only problem: Mille’s roommate Flora is a total princess.

She’s also an actual princess. Of Scotland.

At first, the girls can barely stand each other–Flora is both high-class and high-key–but before Millie knows it, she has another sort-of-best-friend/sort-of-girlfriend. Even though Princess Flora could be a new chapter in her love life, Millie knows the chances of happily ever afters are slim . . . after all, real life isn’t a fairy tale . . . or is it?

Book Tag Sunday: The Wanderlust Book Tag

Happy Sunday! We’re back with another book tag, and this one was just too fun and original to resist. I stumbled upon it over on Bookish Rita, but it was created by Alexandra @ Reading by Starlight. As always, if this piques your interest, consider yourself tagged!

1. Secrets and Lies: A Book Set in a Sleepy Small Town

The Memory Trees by Kali Wallace

I adored this book when I received an ARC of it, and I loved the feeling of the close-knit, everyone-knows-everyone community that it gave off. Even though the story focuses on one family, there was an idleness to the town which was really attractive to me. I’m always drawn towards intimate books set in tiny, insular places, and I loved the atmosphere that was crafted so pointedly in this novel.

2. Salt and Sand: A Book with a Beach-Side Community

Dangerous Girls by Abigail Haas

The perfect beach read will always be the book that actually takes place by the beach. While the characters in this story are just tourists, you get the beachy-atmosphere and a sense of the community at large in this novel. While it may give off Amanda Knox-vibes, there’s no bustling European city here. And the hot, sweaty, sandy setting only makes the events of the plot even more urgent and engaging.

Introducing: YA & LATTES

Hello and happy summer! The year is finally over, and I’m looking forward to a refreshing and (hopefully) work-filled break. As I am currently, unfortunately unemployed, I’ve decided to follow through with a little passion project I’ve been meaning to begin for quite a while now. I’ve launched an Instagram, YA & Lattes, to document my current reads, my current drinks, and the year ahead of me. My whole life already revolves around coffee and reading, why not show the world? As I enter into my junior year of college, I have not only a full summer upon me now, but I’ll also be abroad next spring, and I thought this would be the perfect way to stay in the loop with all things bookish!

While I do have an Instagram account for YA Books Daily, I felt a bit overwhelmed trying to compete with all the amazingly talented bookstagram accounts which already exist, and I found myself feeling really pressured to meet certain expectations. I want this account to reflect my love, my passion, and my idea of the perfect bookstagram, not someone else’s.

I’m really excited to be focusing on this little account for the foreseeable future, but I won’t be disappearing from this site, in fact, quite the opposite! I have more time than ever to dedicate to YA Books Daily and I’m so excited to catch up on all the books I missed reading over the course of the academic year. Stay tuned, and thank you all once again for your patience. I’m so happy to be back!

YA & Lattes is linked above, but you can also click here to check it out. And if you’re really groovin’ on it, feel free to give me a follow and help me launch this new and exciting chapter!

xoxo,

Paige

Review: The Cheerleaders by Kara Thomas

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★ 

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Thriller

Synopsis: There are no more cheerleaders in the town of Sunnybrook.

First there was the car accident—two girls gone after hitting a tree on a rainy night. Not long after, the murders happened. Those two girls were killed by the man next door. The police shot him, so no one will ever know why he did it. Monica’s sister was the last cheerleader to die. After her suicide, Sunnybrook High disbanded the cheer squad. No one wanted to be reminded of the girls they lost.

That was five years ago. Now the faculty and students at Sunnybrook High want to remember the lost cheerleaders. But for Monica, it’s not that easy. She just wants to forget. Only, Monica’s world is starting to unravel. There are the letters in her stepdad’s desk, an unearthed, years-old cell phone, a strange new friend at school. . . . Whatever happened five years ago isn’t over. Some people in town know more than they’re saying. And somehow Monica is at the center of it all.

There are no more cheerleaders in Sunnybrook, but that doesn’t mean anyone else is safe.

Book Tag Sunday: The Cheesy Goodness Book Tag

It’s time for another installment of Book Tag Sunday! And who doesn’t love cheese? We’re so glad to get the opportunity to combine two of our absolute favorite things (book opinions and various cheeses) in one convenient post, and if you’re reading this and want to combine those two things as well, consider yourself tagged! This tag was originally created by Fire and Rain Books.

Review: Little White Lies by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ 

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Mystery

Synopsis: “I’m not saying this is Sawyer’s fault,” the prim and proper one said delicately. “But.”

Eighteen-year-old auto mechanic Sawyer Taft did not expect her estranged grandmother to show up at her apartment door and offer her a six-figure contract to participate in debutante season. And she definitely never imagined she would accept. But when she realizes that immersing herself in her grandmother’s “society” might mean discovering the answer to the biggest mystery of her life-her father’s identity-she signs on the dotted line and braces herself for a year of makeovers, big dresses, bigger egos, and a whole lot of bless your heart. The one thing she doesn’t expect to find is friendship, but as she’s drawn into a group of debutantes with scandalous, dangerous secrets of their own, Sawyer quickly discovers that her family isn’t the only mainstay of high society with skeletons in their closet. There are people in her grandmother’s glittering world who are not what they appear, and no one wants Sawyer poking her nose into the past. As she navigates the twisted relationships between her new friends and their powerful parents, Sawyer’s search for the truth about her own origins is just the beginning.

Set in the world of debutante balls, grand estates and rolling green hills, Little White Lies combines a charming setting, a classic fish-out-of-water story, and the sort of layered mystery only author Jennifer Lynn Barnes can pull off.

Blog Tour: In the Neighborhood of True by Susan Kaplan Carlton [EXCERPT]

Hi everyone! Long time no see, but I’m so glad to be coming back from my hiatus to talk about this absolutely incredible book and I’m so honored to be a part of the blog tour! And I am even more elated to share with you all an excerpt (!!!) of this title before its release next week on April 9. This book is truly so special, so unique, and both heartwrenching and heartwarming. It’s romantic, historical, and an integral read considering our current global political climate. I sincerely hope this first chapter hooks you just as quickly as it hooked me. Scroll on down to hear more about the book and check out the first chapter!

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Title: In the Neighborhood of True

Author: Susan Kaplan Carlton

Publisher: Algonquin Young Readers

Publication Date: April 9, 2019

My Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Thank you to Algonquin Young Readers for providing an advanced copy of the book and for inviting me to the blog tour!

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A powerful story of love, identity, and the price of fitting in or speaking out.

After her father’s death, Ruth Robb and her family transplant themselves in the summer of 1958 from New York City to Atlanta—the land of debutantes, sweet tea, and the Ku Klux Klan. In her new hometown, Ruth quickly figures out she can be Jewish or she can be popular, but she can’t be both. Eager to fit in with the blond girls in the “pastel posse,” Ruth decides to hide her religion. Before she knows it, she is falling for the handsome and charming Davis and sipping Cokes with him and his friends at the all-white, all-Christian Club.

Does it matter that Ruth’s mother makes her attend services at the local synagogue every week? Not as long as nobody outside her family knows the truth. At temple Ruth meets Max, who is serious and intense about the fight for social justice, and now she is caught between two worlds, two religions, and two boys. But when a violent hate crime brings the different parts of Ruth’s life into sharp conflict, she will have to choose between all she’s come to love about her new life and standing up for what she believes.

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ARC Review: Any Second by Kevin Emerson

Review by: Paige

Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Thriller

Publication: November 20, 2018

I received this book for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis: Five years after being kidnapped, Elian’s captor sends him into the mall–with a bomb strapped to his chest.

Across the mall is Maya, a girl whose crippling anxiety holds her prisoner in its own way. 

Whether it’s chance or fate, Maya keeps Eli from ending them all. And now nothing is the same. Drawn together by their dark pasts, Maya and Eli know it takes only seconds for their entire worlds to change. But time will tell if meeting each other will change them for better or worse.